Love to see those smilin' faces...

This is my second year of coaching middle school sports -- girls volleyball this time of year and girls softball in the spring. It is a kick.

A majority of my girls are competing for the first time, on the court and on the field. They have just a few weeks to learn the basic skill of the sport and in no time at all they take to the field of battle, ready to represent their school. As the small crowd roars and their parents await their child's first serve, set, bump, spike or dig, or their child's first ground ball, fly ball or hit, there's a moment, just before the youngster makes her play when she grits her teeth and takes a deep breath. What follows is the reason why I love to coach middle school sports.

For example, yesterday was our first volleyball game of the season. A good crowd was on hand. It was a home game, which made it a little easier on my group of newbies. One of my girls stepped behind the service line and prepared for her first-ever attempt. The volleyball net to her must have looked like it was a mile away. She unleashed the serve. The ball sailed over the net and fell untouched, just inside the out-of-bounds line on the left side of the opponent's court. A point for our side! The young athlete returned to the service line. I yelled out her name. She looked at me. I yelled to her, "Now, do it again and this time smile!"

She did just that as she scored the next six points with her pin-point serves. We won the game and the match. It really didn't matter if we had won or lost (well, maybe a little), but what did matter was that smilin' face.

How could you ever get tired of seeing that?